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Old treasures recorded

A remarkable book on Alwar by Colonel Hendley showcased to the world the art treasures of the famous Albert Hall

Old treasures recorded

Hand-coloured portrait of Maharaja Mangal Singh of Alwar



B N Goswamy

The best examples of the skill of the past are disappearing, and I feel it to be the duty of all, who have the opportunity, to place on record the few facts they may be able to ascertain regarding such treasures, and to preserve at least the memory of them by carefully made drawings.

Thomas Holbein Hendley

The spellings in the title of this piece are exactly as these appear in the book: today’s Alwar was in the 19th century, at least for the British, ‘Ulwar’. And, legitimately, it was of its treasures that Colonel Hendley (1847-1917) was writing, as long back as 1888, for he knew them well, having been not only a resident in high official capacity of the great state of Jaipur (“Jeypore” to him) in the neighbourhood but also having done remarkable work in collecting and showing its art treasures in the famous Albert Hall there. Clearly the Colonel had full access to the Alwar collection, too, and it was time, as far as he was concerned, for it to be made known to the world outside. The book was published in England, by the famous publishing house of W. Griggs.

I knew the book and had read it a long time back — and in my memory had stayed the enthusiasm with which it was written as also its exquisite binding and design — but quite suddenly it surfaced again for merecently: in the collection of the wife of a dear friend, who had passed on many years ago. Avidly, I leafed through it again and was struck once more by how much it had to offer even to the casual reader.

Colonel Hendley, who wrote the book, was in many ways a remarkable man. Trained as a doctor in England, he had moved to India, working for Her Majesty’s government. He was placed after some time in Jaipur where he stayed for close to a quarter of a century, as the resident surgeon major of the state. He was mindful of his duties as a doctor but his real passion was the preservation and revival of the traditional crafts of India, especially of Rajasthan, which he came to know well and became deeply interested in. ‘Industrial Arts’ is how many of these were then called, and these were the ‘flavour of the times’ for our colonial masters in the second half of the 19th century.

Seizing the moment, Col. Hendley immersed himself in the situation: got the then Maharaja of Jaipur to agree to building up a major collection of the arts and crafts of Rajasthan, conceived of a great exhibition — the ‘Jeypore Exhibition’ it was called — and eventually of a whole, permanent museum devoted to these arts. The celebrated Albert Hall in Jaipur, all in glistening white marble and standing even today like a delicate jewel of the city, was built, even though with royal funds, through his efforts and those of the architect Swinton Jacob. This apart, publication after publication followed: Memorials of the Jeypore Exhibition, monographs on Jaipur Enamels and Damascening on Steel in India, articles in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry. This surgeon was member of the Royal Asiatic Society; vice-president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; Fellow of the Calcutta University, Trustee of the Indian Museum, while remaining Honorary Secretary, of course, of the ‘Jeypore Museum’.

What stands out in Colonel Hendley’s writing, including in this volume on Alwar, is the amount of information he packs. Here he speaks not only of ‘art treasures’ but also, for instance, of the history of this breakaway state headed by scions of the Naruka dynasty, the Ashokan edict of Bairat on the borders of the state, the marauders of neighbouring Mewat, even in detail the festivals of Alwar ‘which relieve the monotony of life in Rajasthan’. But then, he shifts smoothly to the theme proper of his work: the art of the state and the region. The library of the state interested him greatly because in it were preserved some rarities. Like a copy of the Gulistan, that great classic of the Persian world. It was scripted, the Colonel duly notes, by Agha Mirza of Delhi, and then he goes on to inform us of delicious detail: that “a single page was written in fifteen days, and the whole work in twelve years. The borders of the pages were designed and painted by Natha Shah and Kari Abdul Rehman of Delhi, and the illustrations were painted by Ghulam Ali Khan and Baldeo, artist of Ulwar. The total cost of the work is said to have been one lakh of rupees.” One might not be able to share the Colonel’s enthusiasm for the quality of this volume, unless of course, one is in part misled by the quality of reproductions in his book — the limitations of technology then available having intervened — but one knows that everything, just about everything, interested him.

Similarly, a copy of the holy Quran, a manuscript of the Devi Mahatmya, an enormously long panel of an imperial procession, drew him to themselves. So did other things; the arms and armour of the state, textiles, jewellery, silver tableware, book-binding, and naturally the portraits of the royal family, especially of his friend and patron, the then ruler of Alwar, Mangal Singh.

While engaging with objects and artefacts, Colonel Hendley keeps sharing his views on art as he found being practiced in our country in general.

“The (Indian) artist, as a rule, blindly follows his master, usually at a distance” he writes at one place. “Such work has a tendency to degenerate and finally to disappear, more especially if the practice of it is lucrative, and if secret methods are involved….” Again: “The art of the Indian is more the art of instinct than reason”; or “Within certain limits, the Indian artist can so vary his decorative designs as to have the appearance of originality …” And so on.

There is sharpness in these remarks but then these are more pronouncements than observations, and there is a whiff of colonial superiority in them: one has to remember the times that he was living in. But then, one also knows that somewhere in all this there is admiration for the skill of Indian hands. Else, he would not have been involved in getting a massive ‘Jaipur Gate’ carved and made of teak in India and transported across thousands of miles to England to stand outside the Hove Museum and Art Gallery in Sussex.

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